Brentford’s Ivan Toney is targeted by sickening racist abuse on Instagram

Ivan Toney has been the target of racist abuse after scoring twice in Brentford’s win over Brighton on Friday night.

The Brentford striker posted screenshots of a message sent from an Instagram account in the name of Antonio Neill calling him a “black c***.”

Toney also posted to the alleged abuser’s Instagram photo feed, writing: “I wasn’t even going to post this but I woke up angry…”

MailOnline attempted to contact the account for comment.

A statement from Brentford read: “Last night Ivan Toney was the victim of disgusting, racist abuse through a direct message received on social media.

“We condemn this discriminatory behavior in the strongest possible terms. An attack on one of our players is an attack on all of us.

“Ivan has the full support of the Club and of the Brentford fans we have already seen condemning the abuse.

“We expect strong support from the police, the legal authorities and from Instagram’s parent company Meta to ensure that the person involved receives the full force of the law for this despicable hate crime.”

Toney, 26, who was recently called up to the England squad for the first time, scored both of Brentford’s goals in a 2-0 win at Gtech Community Stadium.

It was his seventh and eighth goals of the Premier League season in just his 10th appearance, ending a run of three games without a win for the Bees.

It’s far from the first time Toney has been targeted by racists.

He was left ‘disgusted’ after members of his family and team-mate Rico Henry were racially abused during the Premier League game with Everton at Goodison Park in May.

Toney tweeted at the time: “And for the man who racially abused my family, I will do everything I can to give you the punishment you deserve.”

The striker told Sky Sports News at the time: “You don’t expect that at a football game in this day and age someone, let alone your parents, will come and support you – mine and Rico’s parents.

“After winning, you just think about getting the three points and that was a good feeling.

“When you hear that right away, you turn to anger and anger that your family, who has come to support you all those miles, experiences that right after a win.

“It’s sad that I still have to sit here and talk about racism without my family going to a game like any normal person and having a normal day.

“Emotions sometimes get the upper hand, but it should never come out, that’s a reason to be racist. You can be angry at certain results, but you should never rush to discriminate against someone based on skin color or anything.

“We can’t paint all Everton fans the same way, I’m sure it’s just one foolish person and the shame of it is that I believe his son had to take him away to do further damage. It’s just disgusting and we need to end it as soon as possible.”

In January 2021, Meta – then Facebook – deleted the account of an Instagram user who racially abused Toney by sending the N-word in a private message.

In April of the same year, Toney shared a private message sent to him after Brentford signed with Birmingham using the word “monkey” and some emojis of monkeys and bananas.

Toney wrote: ‘Frankly, I’m done.’